A FABULOUS two days on the bikes :)

Yesterday we left at about 10am for the 40km ride to Ganden....well, LP does not have their facts right and it was 46kms to the turnoff to the 9km of climbing! We had a very tiring 55kms and nearly missed seeing the monastery....but A got in there and got some photos for you :) I do not know if LP got the altitude right...it said just under 4300m altitude on my watch and it's only about 50m off now that we are back - LP says it's 4500m. I can confirm that it FELT like we climbed up to 4500m :):):) and it's definitely the highest we have slept.

We were stymied in the route we planned - the trekking trail to Samye is about as developed as a sheep trail snaking up the hillside....not for bikes! So we spotted another trail down the backside of Ganden - rocky but ridable :) and we dropped onto that and we camped in....the ruins of an old fort :) It was awesome!!!! We explored the ruins and then I made dinner (seaweed/mushroom/garlic/ginger/noodle soup :) and then we set up the tent and watched Ganden slow down as the sun went down. A great evening after a long day in the saddle. Then, this morning, I left A to sleep as I went to watch the sunrise from the valley end of the ruins and then after breakfast A walked back up to Ganden and walked the kora.

We then packed up the bikes and A had a small mishap on the way to the bikes from the campsite (up a very rocky trail) and crashed and got a slight twist in her ankle and skinned up her knee pretty good - ah, we have carried the first aid kit for 6 months and finally needed to use it (thank goodness it was for something minor! :). The ego was more bruised than the body (she has often said she is better on a bike than on foot :) and we decided to continue down the trail that we could see off the backside and down into the valley we presume we would have come into if we had been able to do the Samye trail. A was her typical queen of rock and she rode some pretty hairy stuff, even with the panniers! We both said more than once that this would be an awesome trail if we had no luggage (we could have probably ridden 30% more).

It was rocky and we rode about as much of it as we had to walk, but we had HUGE grins on our faces - this is more than likely virgin singletrack...no bikes have been this way before :) We finally made it to the bottom, A twisting her ankle and making it a little bit worse just before we reached the bottom, but nothing to stop her riding back to Lhasa. We formed a train and hammered it back to the youth hostel where we could get a hot shower and chase some much needed food - it was hard work riding these past 2 days, but we are thinking that it's right up there with the best days we have had on the bikes and we are very glad we finally made it to Ganden.

Photos coming soon....but we are tired and we will catch you tomorrow :)